The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Proverbs 21: 5

To “profit” simply means you still have money left after all your expenses are paid. We’d all like to be profitable, but why is it so hard to get there sometimes? Many of us seem to be perpetually behind financially.  And when our troubles result from poor choices we’ve made, we may not know how to fix our situation or prevent it from happening again.

A case in point: An episode of a recent talk show featured a family that was about $80,000 in debt. They met with a financial counselor, refinanced their house and were able to take $50,000 from their house and pay off quite a bit of debt. Unfortunately, when they came back on the show a year later, they returned with an additional $37,000 on top of their original debt. The financial counselor said that based on these results, this family didn’t really want to be debt free - they just wanted to relieve a little pressure. Once some of the pressure was relieved, they were “done” in their minds and went back to spending money.

This scenario plays out in so many people’s lives. Yet, I’ve never heard anyone actually say, “I want to get out of debt - and after that I want to rack up more debt!” Sounds crazy, right?  

I believe one of the best remedies for financial stress and yo-yo budgeting (getting in debt, getting out of debt, getting back in debt, getting back out of debt, etc.) is rooted in Proverbs 21: setting financial goals. With goals you are no longer wandering aimlessly but know where you are going and know exactly how far you have to go before arriving.

Before my husband and I paid off our credit cards, we had goals for what we wanted to do with the extra credit card payment money when we no longer had to make those payments. And before that goal was reached, we planned for another goal to shoot for after that one. I believe this practice is what’s kept us from going back into debt. We have clear plans for what we want to do with our money and while we may get sidetracked from time to time, we still have our goals to guide us.

If you don’t have any financial goals yet, I encourage you set aside some time to pray about what goals you want to set and then sit down and write them out. You’ll want to evaluate your current financial situation as well as what you want your financial future to look like and figure out what steps will get you there. When writing down your financial goals it’s a good idea to include specific time frames for reaching your goals. You may or may not meet those time frames, but at least you’ll be able to see how you are doing along the way and adjust as necessary.